"Emma" endured 40 years of violent attacks at the hands of her vile husband.

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Battered women of all ages are being urged to speak up - no matter what stage in life they have reached.

Renfrewshire Women’s Aid, based in Paisley, exists to help women and children living in fear of horrific domestic abuse escape their nightmare.

In last year’s annual report it emerged that a total of 1,107 victims approached the service for help in 12 months, meaning more than 90 women every month bravely reach out for help.

But too many are still suffering in silence.

One woman who knows all too how domestic abuse ruins life has taken the bold decision to speak to the Paisley Daily Express about her 43 years of suffering.

Renfrewshire pensioner Emma, 69, was punched, kicked, controlled financially and mentally, stalked and harrassed by her domineering husband throughout more than four decades of marriage.

Emma - not her real name - is a proud mother and grandmother who has worked all her life and she hopes her story will give even one woman the strength to contact Women’s Aid.

She told the Paisley Daily Express: “In the 1960s I was 19 years old, unmarried and pregnant. My husband-to-be had a good job and came from a good family.

“We were only young, so instead of paying cash we had to buy a three-piece suite on hire purchase. The day we got it he battered me on the landing of our flat. It was terrible.

“It started because he was uptight about taking on debt ... because his family was well off he wasn’t used to having debt.

“When I went back upstairs my mother saw me and told me not to marry him.”

When Emma’s baby was born there was more violence - usually after he had been drinking - and it didn’t stop for all the years she stayed with her husband.

“He belted me stupid that day. It was always alcohol-related. It was always through drink.

“On that occasion, he had to phone the doctor for me because my face was badly disfigured. I told people I had tripped up on the vinyl and banged my face off the close railings.

“A Saturday night was always a terrible time. He would be moroculous and there was always shouting and bawling.

“It went on like that for years and then it got to the stage where I came to Renfrewshire Women’s Aid.”

Emma hid the extent of the abuse from her family and was so desperate to leave she kept a bag in her car at all times with pyjamas, clothes and toiletries.

When they tried counselling even the marriage counsellor openly told Emma she was wating her time because her husband didn’t think he was doing anything wrong.

Her husband didn’t want her visiting friends and family, he resented their grandchild for “stealing” her gran’s affection and barged in to the bathroom so she couldn’t even have a bath in peace.

She was beaten on holiday in Greece and batterd the night before a family wedding in England, but there wasn’t one big incident that made her turn to Women’s Aid.

She explained: “I came to Women’s Aid for counselling and then they got me a flat. At first, I just couldn’t do it as I would be walking away from everything I had worked for - a nice house and a good job.

“But Women’s Aid listen to my story and it was a relief.

“I left him on my 43rd wedding anniversary.He battered me stupid that night. I had my stuff ready and while he was out walking the dog I put my stuff in the car and left. I was 63 years old.

“My advice to women suffering in silence is ‘be open about what is happening. Why shield this person?’”

Rae Gilbert, the charity’s children and young people’s outreach worker, said all experiences are different.

She said: “It is a big decision for women to come to us.

“At this time of year there is a rise in need for our services, but we don’t have quiet spells now.

“If there are children involved, women will try to keep the family together for them. Christmas is a powderkeg with additional pressures.

“It doesn’t matter what age you are. Help is here to start your journey. It is a process and we are here to do it with you one sterp at a time.”